ccTLD
Also: country-code top-level domain
A country-code top-level domain such as .io, .ai, .co or .de, operated under an arrangement with a national authority rather than under ICANN's generic TLD contracts.
Because they sit outside those contracts, ccTLD zone files are unavailable through ICANN's zone data service. For brand protection that gap is adversarial rather than incidental: a squatter choosing an unwatched namespace has the same public information.